'Spring Breakers' brings decadent ritual to the big screen

By Abbey Goodman, CNN

Updated 3:52 PM ET, Tue March 19, 2013

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Photos:Child stars all grown up

Child stars all grown up: Selena Gomez – "Spring Breakers" is quite a departure for Selena Gomez, who started her career on "Barney & Friends." The actress later made a name for herself in Disney's "Wizards of Waverly Place" and family-friendly Disney flicks such as "Another Cinderella Story." Gomez has shown she's growing up by taking on more mature projects like her Funny or Die video, "Fifty Shades of Blue." Even her red carpet fashion choices and relationship with Justin Bieber, which ended earlier this year, separate the actress from her Disney persona.

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Vanessa Hudgens – In 2006, Vanessa Hudgens shot to fame with Disney's wholesome TV movie "High School Musical." The actress, who next appears in the racy "Spring Breakers," didn't just alter her angelic image by appearing in projects such as 2011's "Sucker Punch." Nude photos of Hudgens leaked online in 2007 and 2009.

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Zac Efron – Like his "High School Musical" costar and former girlfriend, Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron has broken out of his Disney shell with roles in flicks like "The Lucky One" and "New Year's Eve," in which he spends quality time with an older woman played by Michelle Pfeiffer. "The Paperboy" marks Efron's most adult role due to the film's infamous urination scene between the actor's Jack Jansen and Nicole Kidman's Charlotte Bless.

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Daniel Radcliffe – Daniel Radcliffe distanced himself from "Harry Potter" when he starred as Alan Strang in the 2007 revival of "Equus." Radcliffe, who appeared in a nude scene onstage, received positive reviews for his grown-up performance.

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Miley Cyrus – Miley Cyrus and her TV alter ego Hannah Montana became household names thanks to her popular Disney show, which ran from 2006 to 2011. Photographer Annie Leibovitz captured Cyrus, 15, wrapped up in a sheet for Vanity Fair. Cyrus' pole dancing performance at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards also caused a stir, and she was berated for giving producer Adam Shankman a lap dance in 2010. The same year, a video surfaced of the singer smoking a bong filled with salvia, an herb that's legally sold in many health food stores.

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Macaulay Culkin – Known for being the adorable kid in films such as "Uncle Buck," "Home Alone" and "My Girl," Macaulay Culkin didn't have the easiest transition from child star to adult actor. In 2004, the same year he appeared in "Saved!" Culkin was charged with marijuana possession and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription.

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Shia LaBeouf – Another former Disney star, Shia LaBeouf has come a long way from "Even Stevens." Films like "Transformers," "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" and "Lawless" show the actor in more mature roles. And in 2012, LaBeouf bared it all -- and we mean all of it -- in a Sigur Ros music video. He'll soon star in Lars Von Trier's "Nymphomaniac," which will likely be LaBeouf's most adult role to date.

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Lindsay Lohan – Lindsay Lohan's career was on a family-friendly trajectory when she made her big screen debut in 1998's "The Parent Trap." After 2004's "Mean Girls," Lohan took on more mature projects such as "Georgia Rule" and "Machete." But it wasn't just her on-screen choices that broke Lohan out of her wholesome image. The actress was charged with driving under the influence in 2006, and fitted with a monitoring device to measure her alcohol intake in 2007. She's been in and out of court ever since -- and is now headed for rehab.

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Dustin diamond – After playing Screech Powers in "Saved by the Bell" for 12 years, Dustin Diamond directed and starred in a sex tape called "Screeched." He's since appeared as himself on reality TV shows like "Celebrity Fit Club."

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Christina Aguilera – Former Mouseketeer Christina Aguilera has made headlines since she came on the music scene in 1999 with her self-titled album. But by the time she released "Stripped" in 2002, Aguilera was on a whole other playing field. (Remember picking your jaw up off the floor after watching her "Dirrty" music video on "Total Request Live?")

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Keshia Knight Pulliam – After playing the adorable Rudy Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," Keshia Knight Pulliam proved she was all grown up by taking on projects such as "Beauty Shop" and "House of Payne." She also appeared in Chingy's 2004 music video, "One Call Away."

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Amanda Bynes – After getting her start on Nickelodeon's "All That" and "The Amanda Show," Amanda Bynes appeared in movies such as "Big Fat Liar" and "What a Girl Wants." She continued appearing in kid-friendly comedic flicks such as "She's the Man," "Hairspray" and "Easy A" before announcing her plans to retire from acting. (She "unretired" later that year.) But it was the choices she made in her personal life that proved the actress was all grown up. In the past year, she's faced hit-and-run charges, as well as driving under the influence.

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Britney Spears – Just like Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears went from "The Mickey Mouse Club" to being "not that innocent." After becoming a mom, the singer shaved her head and checked into a treatment facility in 2007. She's since released three albums and appeared as a judge on "The X Factor."

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Demi Lovato – Like Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato got her start on "Barney & Friends" before landing her own Disney show, "Sonny with a Chance." In 2010, the actress and singer opened up about her "emotional and physical issues." She eventually checked into an inpatient treatment center. Along with Spears, Lovato judged the second season of "The X Factor."

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Drew Barrymore – Aside from a problem with substance abuse early on in career, Drew Barrymore successfully made the transition from child star to revered actress-producer-director. The "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" actress was in rehab by age 13; however, she was back on track around age 20.

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Justin Bieber – Having been a household name since the ripe old age of 15, Justin Bieber has grown up in the public eye. At 19, the singer is apparently showing us his grown-up side, which includes hitting the London club scene, showing up late to a concert, smoking marijuana -- and then apologizing for it on "Saturday Night Live."

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Story highlights

Former Disney stars Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens are among the film's cast

Creator Harmony Korine said spring break in Florida is "a very base culture"

Gomez said she took the role because she wanted to see how far she could go

"Bikinis and big booties, y'all. That's what life is about," professes Alien, the be-grilled, white Camaro-driving rapper played by James Franco in Harmony Korine's "Spring Breakers" (in theaters Friday).

Add baby-pink ski masks and more than a little gunplay to the mix, and we're off.

The art-sleaze film about the decadent rites of American college kids stars former Disney sweethearts Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens alongside "Pretty Little Liars' " Ashley Benson and Korine's wife, Rachel, as broke coeds who stick up a chicken shack to fund the spring break of their dreams.

When the partying goes too far and the girls find themselves in jail in St. Petersburg, Florida, it's Alien who bails them out and introduces them to a life that's both darker and more tender than they ever knew.

The DayGlo- and dubstep-fueled assault on the senses was written by Korine ("Kids," "Trash Humpers") while doing some immersion research in a hotel room in Panama City, Florida, where, he told an audience at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, "people were blasting Taylor Swift music 24 hours a day, vomiting on my door and snorting donuts. It was crazy."

"It's a very base culture," he continued, "and I thought there was some kind of strange poetry in it as well."

The scenes of spring break, raunchy displays of grinding bodies and guys spilling beer into topless girls' mouths from crotch level, were taken from real-life festivities.

"Some of the scenes we were shooting, and you see we're in the motel room, and all of us are just completely covering our mouths and shocked -- that was all real," Gomez said. "We were witnessing things that were happening that were absolutely crazy and reacting in the realest way."

"The images were hypersexualized, hyperviolent," Korine said, "and then the subject matter was all the details: The bikinis and the book bags and the flip-flops and the Hello Kitty bags and the nail polish and the neons and the stickers and the glasses were all real childlike, innocent. I thought it was interesting, both of those things working together. It's a nice backdrop but also a metaphor for what happens later in the film once they meet Alien and what the movie becomes."

Though Faith, Gomez's comparatively pious character, scans as someone who might have grown out of the "Wizards of Waverly Place" and Justin Bieber trajectory, she explained that she chose the role because "I wanted to see how far I could go."

Benson said, "People are used to seeing us in certain roles, and this was a movie where we were able to show people a different side of us, and it was more exciting than anything."

Hudgens added that their characters are "a little bit psychotic in their own right, but it's such a liberating experience to be able to do a movie like this."

But, Gomez cautioned, "I don't necessarily want to know what people are going to say or think" about her choice. "It's just better that way. I can't really make anyone happy. I'm an actor, and I love what I do, so if I want to do something I'm super passionate about, I'm just going to go for it. If people like it, awesome. If not, at least we made them feel something."